If I
were a betting man, I would bet that if you could only miss one Sunday out of
the entire year it would be the Sunday that the pastor delivers the annual “stewardship
sermon.” Well, don’t worry. You’re not alone. I don’t like it either.
It’s
funny how talking about money in church can make us uncomfortable, even though
that was one of Jesus’s favorite topics. In fact, it seems like most Christian
churches these days would much rather talk about the stuff that Jesus did not
really talk about. You know what I mean – the pelvic sins. The author of the
Letter to the Hebrews manages to cover sex and money in our reading today, so
maybe we can just deal with both topics at once, right?
Maybe not.
We definitely need to talk about money, though, and just saying that raises tension in the room. Money is deeply personal, and I saw an article the other
day that I think describes why. The author said, “We don’t pay for things with
our money. We pay for them with hours of our lives spent to get the money to
pay for things.”
What we
get for those “hours of our lives” affects our sense of self-worth, and when
someone else tells us how to spend it we get a little defensive. When that
someone is wearing a collar, well it’s pretty hard to communicate at all
without some feelings of guilt and shame being expressed either intentionally
or unintentionally. As for me, I will confess to you now that I make it a point
not to know what our members and visitors give. I will also confess that when I
asked Chuck to show me some data on giving trends, he did show me what members
have pledged over the last five years. I still do not know what was given, and
frankly, I’ve forgotten who pledged what.
Probably
the most surprising thing for me was to find out that my family is a little
above average in pledging. I’ll also confess to you that we have not always
fulfilled our pledge, because we have had unanticipated expenses. Over the last
two years, we’ve had a couple of medical procedures and a roof that had to be
replaced. One of our AC units has been out for over two years, but hey, that’s
life in south Louisiana!
I tell
you all of this as a way to say that we all have struggles and God knows it. At
the same time, we have a special opportunity to proclaim God’s grace together
in a way that may reach those that others neglect. That’s the beauty of a
growing church. We have a different energy than larger congregations. We are
not as self-sufficient. We have to work through partnerships and relationships,
and that requires intimacy and vulnerability.
So, let’s
be vulnerable for a minute. I’m going to have the ushers pass out a chart that
I want us to talk about. In this chart, you see several groups of three columns.
This represents the giving trend of the congregation over the last several
years. Immediately you will notice that the column for “pledged giving” has
decreased over the last few years. This is primarily due to older members who
have died, although there are a few members that either moved or stopped
attending for their own personal reasons.
You’ll
also note that the “other” column increased in 2016; that was the last time we
raised our fees for ULL students who park with us. Presently the feeling is
that we can’t raise it any higher. The last column is “loose plate.” It has
come up some in the last few years, but not enough to compensate for other
losses. The long and the short of it is that we’ve been on a deficit budget for
the last three years. Most of you should know this from our Rally Day breakfast
and the email that followed it. If you have questions, please talk to Chuck
about it.
What I
want you to do right now is set that aside and think with me a minute about how
all of this connects with our scriptures. What I want you to think about is how
the opportunity of being the church connects with the ideas of scarcity and
abundance. These two words are important because they impact our understanding
of God. They impact the way that we relate to one another, and they impact our
ability to love and be loved.
First
let’s deal with the economic reality of scarcity. Now, I’m no accountant, but
even I know that scarcity is when you don’t have the resources to pay for your
expenses. When that happens you have two options. You either cut expenses or
increase revenue, right? In our case, that means we either have to increase
membership and member giving or cut staff expenses. That is unless we come up
with another way to generate income without losing our sense of who we are as a church. These
are issues that our committees and our Session will be talking about in the
coming year. If you have ideas and want to be a part of those conversations,
let me know. I’ll help you with that.
OK, so
that’s the institutional side of things. What about scarcity and abundance as
belief systems? I just said that those two words impact what you believe about
God, how we relate to others, and how we are able to love and be loved. So,
here’s where I see that in scripture.
Jesus looked
up when the wealthy gave their offerings. That was probably because, as some
scholars have noted, the treasury had a large funnel-shaped opening. When the
wealthy put their offering in it must have sounded like one of those coin-sorting machines at the grocery store!
When the widow put in three coins, the contrast must have been terribly
obvious.
Everyone
knew that the wealthy were the ones with the abundant resources, and the belief
of the time was that God had particularly blessed them. Jesus immediately
reframed the experience to demonstrate the way that things work in the kin-dom
(family) of God. The economy in the kingdom of God is not based on wealth and
power and status. It is based on grace and mercy and generosity of the heart.
Jesus knew this and he called out the wealthy for giving without risk in a way
that called attention to their wealth, and he praised the poor widow who made
what any of us would probably call a very bad life choice. Then Jesus went a
bit further, as he often did, and told them that their giving didn’t really
matter in the long run.
As hard
as that is to hear, it reminds me of a great story by Fred Craddock, a renowned
preacher and author, and teacher. He once told the story of his first church
which was located in a growing area of a rural town in Tennessee. As the area
grew the church decided that those that came to build could only be members if
they owned property in the area. Years later he returned to the area, only to
find that the church had closed. The building was purchased and reopened as a
BBQ restaurant. As he and his wife
enjoyed a good meal, he noticed the diversity of the room which included people
of every walk of life. He looked at his wife and he said, “It’s a good thing
this isn’t a church anymore. If it was, most of these people wouldn’t be
welcomed in here like they are now!”
I tell
that as a cautionary tale, knowing that in two weeks we will be having some
pretty good BBQ after church, and I’m pretty sure that everyone is welcome to
join. In the meantime, we have some things to think about. We need to think about
what kind of community we are building here. Who is truly welcome? How does our
welcome of the stranger shape us, form us, and even redeem the land on which we
stand?
According
to Jeremiah, redeeming the land requires investment in what God is doing. His
purchase of land was a recognition that the land, the earth and everything on
it, was God’s. His cousin was selling the land because the people that Jeremiah
said would conquer them were conquering them. Yet Jeremiah bought it. Jeremiah
bought it, but not because it was a sound investment. He bought it to
demonstrate that God’s presence is active in chaos, and the land would
eventually be a way to show God’s faithfulness in all things.
In the
same way, the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that investing in what God is
doing isn’t just about our cash. If anything that’s an afterthought. Investing
in what God is doing requires empathy and fidelity. Where have we heard that
before? Love your Lord your God with all of your mind, body, and soul; and love
your neighbor as yourself. You can find examples of faithfulness all through
the Bible, but I think the point our reading makes is about intimacy.
Take
care of each other, but don’t forget to offer the same care for strangers – they
bring messages from God. Suffer with those that suffer, but don’t forget to pay
attention to your closest and most intimate relationships – they are also gifts
from God. All of this is given to us because bad stuff is still going to
happen.
Bad
stuff doesn’t disprove God. If anything it shows us who we can count on, and
the greatest resource – the most abundant resource – is always the active,
loving presence of God. Abundance is not found in the things we can buy. It’s
not described by the wealth we can build up. It’s not demonstrated in the
buildings we can maintain or the programs we generate.
Abundance
is only found in sacrificial giving and space it creates for grace and mercy
and love. These are things that we cannot buy. Grace (undeserved favor) and
mercy (undeserved forgiveness) and love (which can’t be earned) are the
currency of our actions and the character of our relationships as people who
follow God. What we do with our money matters because it demonstrates who we
are and how we love.
What
you must decide, and so must I, is whether you are ready to demonstrate
abundance the way the widow did. I’m not suggesting that you bring everything
you own to church next Sunday. I’m saying that we have to realize that
everything already belongs to God, and we have each been entrusted to care for
some of it. What we have to decide is how to use it in ways that reflect the
grace and mercy and love that we have received.
As I’ve
heard it said before, “It’s just that simple, and it’s just that hard.” Yet
with God’s help, with our love for one another and the witness of strangers to
guide us on our way, “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and every
manner of thing shall be well.” Amen.
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